Mr. Irving was at this time so anxious to get on with his literary pursuits, that he rather avoided the gay world.

I have advances made me by society, [he writes to Brevoort not long before,] that were I a mere seeker of society, would be invaluable; but I dread so much being put out in my pursuits and distracted by the mere hurry of fashionable engagements that I keep aloof and neglect opportunities which I may perhaps at some future day look back to with regret.

About this time he received from his London publisher the following concise authority to draw on him for a hundred pounds, a second gratuitous contribution for the Sketch Book, of which, writes Newton, " Murray says its success, considering all things, is unparalleled.”

MY DEAR IRVING:

LONDON, June 29, 1821.

Draw upon me for a hundred pounds, of which I beg thy acceptance, and pray tell me how you are and what you are about; and above all, pardon my short letter. Believe me

ever,

Thy faithful friend,

JOHN MURRAY.

There is a review of the Sketch Book in the Quarterly, which you will like.

The following is the author's reply.

MY DEAR SIR:

[To John Murray.]

PARIS, July 6, 1821.

I write in very great haste to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 29th ult. I am extremely happy to hear

that the Sketch Book has been favorably noticed in the Quarterly. I have not seen the Review, but I doubt whether any criticism in it can be so emphatic as that in your letter. You were certainly intended for a critic. I never knew any one convey so much meaning in so concise and agreeable a manner. In compliance with your request, I have drawn on you for an hundred pounds in favor of Mr. Samuel Williams of London. The supply came opportunely. I am on the point of leaving Paris for Bruxelles, and where I shall go from thence is at present undetermined; but I shall write to you from the Netherlands, should I make any stop there.

I have been leading a "miscellaneous" kind of life at Paris, if I may use a literary phrase. I have been rather distracted by engagements, in spite of all my efforts to keep out of society. Anacreon Moore is living here, and has made me a gayer fellow than I could have wished; but I found it impossible to resist the charm of his society. Paris is like an English wateringplace, with the advantage of the best kind of amusements, and excellent society.

I have scribbled at intervals, and have a mass of writings by me; rather desultory, as must be the case when one is so much interrupted; but I hope, in the fulness of time, to get them into some order.

I write in extreme haste, having to pack up and make other preparations for departure.

With my best regards to Mrs. Murray and the rest of your family, I am, my dear Sir,

Very faithfully yours,

WASHINGTON IRVING.

In this letter the author is "on the point of leaving

Paris for Brussels;" but a sudden change of purpose comes over him, and he determines to start for London at once, to be in time for the approaching coronation of George IV.; hoping also to get something ready for the press by autumn. One of his last acts in Paris is to read to Moore a portion of the manuscript of Buckthorne and his friends, originally designed for Bracebridge Hall, his next work, but forming part of the contents of The Tales of a Traveller which succeeded it. He had already read a portion of it to the poet, "sitting on the grass in the walk up the Rocher."

July 9th.-Moore has the following: Irving came to breakfast for the purpose of taking leave, (being about to set off for England,) and of reading to me some more of his new work; some of it much livelier than the first he read. He has given the description of the booksellers' dinner so exactly like what I told him of one of the Longmans, (the carving partner, the partner to laugh at the popular author's jokes, the twelve edition writers treated with claret, &c.,) that I very much fear my friends in Paternoster Row will know themselves in the picture.

Subsequently, he affords the author an opportunity to improve the picture by personal observation, a part of his record of May 22, 1822, in London being: "Introduced Irving to the Longmans, and dined with him there."

It is no disparagement of the poet, however, to say, as has been said by a critical authority, that the picture "owed every thing to Irving's handling."

It must have been about this time, also, that Mr.

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Irving read to our distinguished historian, George Bancroft, then fresh from two years' study at Göttingen, a portion of the work he was preparing for the press. During a summer in Paris,” says that gentleman in his commemorative remarks before the New York Historical Society, "I formed with him that relation of friendly intimacy, which grew in strength to the last. Time has in a measure effaced the relative difference in our years, but then he was almost twice as old as I. * One evening, after we had been many hours together, he took me to his room, and read to me what he had written at one sitting. * I remember it to this day it was his St. Mark's Eve, from the words 'I am now alone in my chamber,' to the end."

*

The last glimpse we have in Moore's Diary, of Irving at Paris, is the following:

*

July 10th.-Went in to dine at Lord Holland's. Company, Lord John, Fazakerly, Irving, Allen. * Kenney and Irving set off for England to-morrow.

The poet does not mention what I have heard Mr. Irving speak of as an impressive recollection of the occasion, that Talma came in after dinner, with the news of the death of Napoleon.

The next day he set off for England, accompanied by Kenney, who by the way, was the personage alluded to in his Life of Goldsmith, as the author whom he had seen with his back to a tree and his foot to a stone, trying to bother out a scene in a farce which he could not manage to his satisfaction.

CHAPTER III.

THE CORONATION OF GEORGE IV.-MEETING WITH SCOTT-DETAINED IN LONDON ABOUT A PLAY OF PAYNE-DRAGGING OF THE STEAMBOAT AFFAIRS-LETTER TO PETER THEREUPON-LITERARY CONCERNS-EXCURSION TO BIRMINGHAM WITH LESLIE-THE STOUT GENTLEMAN-ITS MORAL-KEPT AT BIRMINGHAM BY ILLNESS-LETTER TO EBENEZER ABOUT LITERARY MATTERS-LETTER TO LESLIE THE children-GEORGE-NEWTON'S INTRODUCTION TO LA BUTTE BY HIMSELF-LESLIE AND POWELL'S JOINT ACCOUNT OF THEIR HOUSEKEEPING IN BUCKINGHAM PLACE-LETTER TO LESLIE-LETTER TO EBENEZER IRVING, NOV. 1, AFTER tidings of a SISTER'S BEREAVEMENT-DEATH OF HIS BROTHER WILLIAM-LETTER FROM NEWTON-MOORE.

MR.

R. IRVING arrived in London the day before the coronation, and the next morning got a stand on the outside of Westminster Abbey, with Newton and Leslie, to see the procession pass. The following day he called on Scott, who congratulated him in his hearty manner on his success, and asked him if he had seen the coronation. He told him he had seen the procession on the outside. "Oh you should have been inside." "Why I only came over the day before, and I did not know how to manage it." "Hut man," said Scott, "you should have told them who you were, and you would have got in any where." At parting, Scott expressed his regret that he would not probably see